A perceived superior era for the support of creativity, Paris in the legendary Roaring 20’s is the perfect arena for director Woody Allen’s light as a feather yet profoundly eternal comic explorations in the pitch-perfect Midnight in Paris. While concluding the cultural spotlight of a bygone era can unnerve current sensibilities, Allen both celebrates and exposes droll, charming nostalgia as muse in his most effective fantasy since Purple Rose of Cairo.
Present-day successful screenwriter and wannabe novelist Owen Wilson, while on holiday in the enchanting City Of Light with his culturally clueless wife Rachel McAdams, reflects on the days Hemingway and Fitzgerald strolled the very same streets and manages to find himself, to his surprise, magically immersed in the golden time itself. As usual in his best work, Allen says a lot with seemingly effortless simplicity. As he acquits with a sage-link wink his career-long fascination with themes of love and death, he renders a sophisticated, tender tribute to both Paris and the endurance of cultural literacy.
Ever the uber-casting director, Allen supporting cast mixes Oscar winners Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, and Adrien Brody with first lady of France Carla Bruni and Michael Sheen. Relative newcomer Corey Stoll plays an Ernest Hemingway you’re likely to remember. The cast, clad in exceptional costumes, romps through dialogue so engaging you can’t wait for what’s next. Here’s Cole Porter, there’s Luis Bunuel (one of the film’s funniest moments is Wilson pitching the plot for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeois to a befuddled, unreceptive Bunuel). Sheen represents smug academia, McAdams and her family the crass and guillible Ugly Americans, Cotillard the unattainable ideal, Wilson the always striving artist looking for but also afraid of the fantasy becoming real.
Neither simple nor incredulous, Midnight in Paris achieves through its sheer yet deceptive lightness the cinematic equivalent of a Marc Vetri crespelle. Woody Allen fans will debate where this film stands in his oeuvre. For this viewer, it rivals the best of his heyday.
9 bon bons (out of 10)
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